Bring a Cathartic Light Ritual to Downtown Atlanta for ELEVATE

“If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk. It’s so many people never seen de light at all.”

― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Our story begins with Lillian Blades, an Atlanta based assemblage and mixed media artist whose sculptural work Memory Totem was created and displayed as one of several public artworks in the Atlanta Underground area last year as part of the City of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs ELEVATE program. Through the platform of public arts provided by ELEVATE, Lillian was able to transform the cultural landscape of Atlanta and provide the public with a mind expanding work of art. Her personal experience with this program led her to enlist two other powerful artists, light painting photographer Linda Costa and “Moving Pictures” video artist Roni Nicole Henderson to collaborate on another ELEVATE project that will be exponentially more powerful.

Collectively, we hope to illuminate and heal all who experience our collaboration while offering a glimpse of our distinct yet closely connected cultural and spiritual traditions- Bahamian Junkanoo, Brazilian Candomble, and Diasporic traditions, offering powerful insights on the power that light has over darkness.

Banho de Luz

By creating our own ritual – Banho de Luz (or Bath of Light) – we seek to cleanse and invigorate the audience by using light as a conductive material in substitution to the waters used in healing herbal baths common in Brazilian Candomble and other African Diaspora ceremonies. Our Light Bath is meant to charge the participants with new vigor and energy in order to empower them in their individual paths, and through them inspire strength and healing in our city as a whole. Our movements will be intimate, slow, deliberate, trance like and driven by the energy present during the ritual. We intend to capture the process and progress via long exposure light painted photographs as well as video stream so that we can learn from and share this new exciting exchange between artist as spiritual guide and audience as initiate.

The Experience

It is only in darkness that one can truly appreciate the power of light. It illuminates and peels back the layers of fear, fans away our clouded judgement, brings clarity and courage. Using nightfall in Downtown Atlanta as our stage, a place that during daylight bustles with the youthful vigor of college students and the intense energy of business yet alternately becomes a deserted wasteland at night, we intend to use the transformative power of art to infuse the dead zones of downtown with light, beauty and life. Our ritual intends to attract initiates to our light temple, a three dimensional structure composed of colorful vinyl and cloth, ornate and glowing with colorful lights crafted by renowned assemblage artist Lillian Blades. Once the chosen participants are inside the magnificent tapestry that will be hung artfully from the Carnegie Educational Pavilion, they will be silently welcomed by Lillian and light painting Photographer Linda Costa, who will jointly begin the ritual, each one moving slowly around participants using alternate sources of light. All the while 3-5 minute long exposures are captured on camera and shared with the audience outside of the light temple via projections. Video stream captures the process and will be transmitted online and also shared via projections courtesy of ‘Moving Pictures’ Filmmaker Roni Nicole Henderson’s captive eye. To amplify the experience for participants and viewers, we have invited musical artist Yamin Semali to add to the richness of the experience with spiritually influenced rhythmic selections from our respective cultural backgrounds. This public demonstration of the Light Bath ritual will offer the opportunity for soul-searching and self realization in the participants and viewers which will serve as a catalyst for better interpersonal relationships in our community.

Your Support

We need your support to help ensure that this collaborative project reaches its full potential, positively impacting as many people as possible. Though we are very grateful to receive some funding from the City of Atlanta it is not nearly enough to cover the basic costs of acquisition of the materials and the cost of our labor, which will exceed 200 working hours. We are highly motivated to make this a success and in order to fulfill this project we need people like you to support us and to invest in the power of art to transform lives. Please give generously at the funding level that makes sense for you and please take advantage of the amazing rewards we offer to the right!

Live in the Light!

Thank you in advance.